Materials recovery & granulators | process feature


Extruders are making the most of recycled material, and saving energy costs into the bargain. Lou Reade reports


Recovery position


Using recycled and recovered material can be a money-saver, and it is now commonly used as the core layer of co-extruded window frames, for example. But as well as making material savings, extruders


are also keen to save other costs, such as by cutting their energy bills. A switch from DC to AC drives by Govaerts Recycling


has led to huge maintenance savings and reduced production noise. The Belgian company’s five extrusion lines produce


around 8,000 tonnes/year of plastic and rubber products for street and park furniture, decking and flooring. Poly- mer granules are blown into the weigh and mixing section, mixed with pigments and other additives, then extruded at 200°C and cut to length. When the five DC-driven lines needed refurbishment,


owner Eddy Govaerts could not find suitable replace- ments so decided to build his own. “Our first extruder lines had DC


motors and drives,” he said. “We bought an off-the-shelf extruder in 1996 to make our first planks and boards for horse stables, but it was not very successful.” In his design, four 37 kW water-cooled AC motors


are directly connected to the shaft of the gearbox, giving total power of 148kW. But it is 70% smaller than before, eliminates drive belts and improves overall efficiency by 10%, and is far quieter. “At full power, the noise is only 40dbA, about the same as a domestic dishwasher,” he said.


www.pipeandprofile.com May/June 2012 | PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION 21 Each line has two modular, heavy duty 110kW


Unidrive SPMA drives from Control Techniques. Each drive feeds two motors. Govaerts liked the Unidrive SPMA because it only


requires the user to keep one small module in stock as spare, and not a costly drive.


Dodging landfill Maguire Products has enhanced its Purging Recovery System (PRS), which transforms purgings into regrind,


Weima has


extended its range of


shredders with two new


models in the Spider series


Davis- Standard’s ram stuffer can handle a wide range of raw materials


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